Shooing birds away is a wild goose chase, say scientists

CANADA geese can be loud and persistent birds, but scientists have found that shooing them away is futile.

The key to getting them to stay away is to leave them on their own, as the animals have been found to return to a patch of land twice as fast if they are forced away.

Scientists fitted Canada geese in Chicago with GPS trackers in 2017 and 2018 and monitored how quickly the flock returned to the spot from which they had been ejected.

Members of the research team walked or drove towards the large birds at Marquette Park near Midway Airport in the US city while hitting boards together.

They found that while they can be successfully scared away, the animals do not wait very long before coming back.

“When they’re not being harassed, they’re making the choice to leave the park because it’s beneficial to them – there’s a resource elsewhere they want to access,” Dr Ryan Askren, now at the University of Arkansas-monticello, who did the work when at the University of Illinois, said.

“Whereas when we’re harassing them, they probably have a biological reason to be there. There’s some sort of resource, such as food or water, and they want to be there at that moment.

“When we harass them, it causes them to leave momentarily, but more than likely they still have that drive to come back.

“So they’re returning more quickly, whereas the geese that leave in the absence of harassment are staying away to make use of a resource elsewhere.”

The study is published in Wildlife Society Bulletin.

Canada geese, scientists have found, are like Vikings. If persuaded to leave, they return with greater enthusiasm. The migratory birds arrive in arrogant squadrons and make a horrible mess. Saying boo to them, or even clacking wooden boards together, merely scares them away temporarily. But research supports a method of goose-shooing with a longerlasting effect. Specially trained goose-dogs, notably border collies, are easily capable of convincing the geese that they face a predator like a wolf, rather than a namby-pamby human being, and they head for pastures new. Perhaps Lord Hattersley, the Labour politician, was ahead of the curve when in 1996 his dog Buster pursued geese in St James’s Park. Sadly, it killed a goose and its master was fined £50. The ideal should be a deterrent that doesn’t have to be used in anger.